Kariya, Aichi

Kariya is a city in central Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It lies on the Mikawa side of the old border between Owari and Mikawa provinces, on flat and well-watered land with an average elevation below ten metres, and covers 50.39 square kilometres. In October 2019 it had an estimated 153,162 residents. The area was a castle town in the Sengoku period and later the seat of Kariya Domain under the Tokugawa shogunate, and Tokugawa Ieyasu's maternal grandfather Mizuno Tadamasa rebuilt Kariya Castle in the mid-16th century. Kariya Town was created in 1889, and the community became a city on 1 April 1950. Its economy is closely tied to the Toyota Group: Toyota Industries, Aisin, Denso, JTEKT and other firms have their headquarters here, and the Toyota Motor Corporation began as a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works. The city is the home of the SeaHorses Mikawa basketball club.